Are those segments for real?? Why does watching someone die fascinate viewers?

As far as I know, they are very real. I watched as a teen out of morbid curiosity. I saw a woman jump out af a window to commit suicide and it looked real to me. It was over in seconds. I'll never forget it. I kept thinking- thats it? Wow, her life was over so fast, and then that's it, what a waste. It makes you realize how life can be lost real easily.

I imagine many of those scenes could be real...
But some of those scenes - I ask myself - "Wait a minute - who's filming this?" Hmmm...

I think it's because this is something few people ever get to see, and they are curious about what happens. I watched a person die once, a slow death of cancer, and when the final moment came, the process itself was fascinating - it dispelled much of my fear of death. For those who prefer to read about it, HOW WE DIE by Sheldon Neuland is an excellent work on the subject.

Catty (who does not fear death, only illness)

and very horrendous - esp scenes involving skinning puppies. The creators of these tapes, from what I understand, were slightly off mentally. I've seen all the tapes - will never get out of my mind the images from the drawing and quartering. That was a very slow and agonizing death I can imagine. As for why I watched them - believe it or not the tapes were recommended to me by a funeral director. I was interested in entering the business but was not sure how I would react during an embalming. He suggested I sit through the tapes to see if I could stomache the grotesqueness associated with death. . .turns out I stomached the embalming better!

as gross as they are. Why would people watch- morbid curisoity?!

Why do people slow down for an accident or crowd around when someone is hurt or injured badly. It is the same. There is even a web site that shows pictures of really gross things like a man eating a cooked fetus and autopsy pictures of celebrities etc.

I guess seeing is believing and for our minds to keep "life" in perspective we must all get a little taste of death once in a while to snap us into reality, to know that life is short and there might not be a tomorrow. 911 has taught us that all at once, that no matter how safe we feel in our own lives we still need to bear in mind that it can all end quickly. So we must all be more curtious, loving, friendly and not waste what little time we have here on this earth.

These sites should answer some questions:

http://www.sptimes.com/News/102600/Weekend/Lifting_the_mask_from.shtml

http://www.urbanlegends.com/movies/faces_of_death_review.html

yep i've seen all 5 videos? unless there were more than 5. Very gross and disgusting. but a lot of those things I've seen happen in real life so it didn't really bother me too much.

As a nurse I to have of course seen people die and its terrible, tho, I guess not as bad as them sitting there in such pain that we are watching them suffer. It all still bothers me very much.

@samantha: You are right. It is terrible and it should not be on the Internet

thanks for your post. I never knew that it wasn't a real snuff movie... was scared stiff of the execution scenes.

Faces of Death wasn't real?

Ron, Faces of Death was real in the aspect that some real footage of real deaths were used...and some real footage of real accidents were used. But filler material using actors was added as well as totally staged scenes. So part real, part staged...either way, gory to watch.